The Darkness Is Coming Birthday fic
by Pliva
Summary: The Darkness Is Coming is one year old! Have three celebratory birthday drabbles


**A/N: It's been one year since I started the Darkness Is Coming. Considering the fact I'm just starting chapter 9... I've been rather bad, haven't I?**

**Anyway, in celebration, I present to you three drabbles I have written in the past couple of weeks. They are all unneta'd, so all mistakes are mine. Also, the last one is a darkfic, so I would not recommend reading it if that is not your cup of tea.**

~*~

Orange Sky

Theta/Koschei

G

They lay on the hill staring up at the orange sky, enjoying each other's presence.

"Remember the first time we snuck out of the Citadel?" Theta suddenly said, turning to look at his companion. "I still can't believe it's so easy. Shouldn't they have better technology?"

Koschei snorted. "They're pathetic. They can have as much technology as they want, what they can't deal with is creativity. Time Lords can't deal with anything the least bit imaginative."

"We're Time Lords now," Theta reminded him, grinning. "We're creative."

"We're exceptions," Koschei announced, crossing his arms and smirking at the sky. "And you're barely a Time Lord. You passed that test by one point."

"It's the only point I needed," Theta pointed out as he propped himself up on one arm. "Besides, I don't want them to notice me. If they do, they'll try to recruit me. Or even worse, fix me."

"You passed the test and became a Time Lord when everyone expected you to fail miserably. They've already noticed you," Koschei pointed before his voice softened. "Besides, you don't need to be fixed. There's nothing wrong with us. _They're_ the problem."

"I know Kosch," Theta replied softly, cutting the other boy off from his rant. He always ranted about the Time Lords and their predictable society. Koschei hated them and pitied them all at once because even now they were so easy to manipulate. Theta had always been the only one he couldn't really control and the first one he had never wanted to. He burned brightly with optimism and cleverness, and that certain kind of innocence that hung around him even though Koschei knew he was much more worldly then he seemed. Koschei wouldn't want to risk losing that for anything.

"We have to announce our Time Lord names soon," Theta said, bringing the dark-haired boy out of his thoughts. "I know Ushas wants to be the Rani. She was explaining it to me the other day."

"However did you manage to get away unscathed?" Koschei asked, chuckling. Theta had a tendency to ask an endless amount of questions and Ushas usually had no patience for it.

"I want to be the Doctor," Theta announced, rolling over onto his stomach. His temple rested on his folded arms as he looked at Koschei.

"The Doctor?" Koschei repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Of course it would be an Earth term. Why would you want to be named after someone who lives just to serve others?"

"Not serve them," Theta corrected. "Makes them better. Heals them. Besides, we both know we're going to leave Gallifrey as soon as we can, why not make it obvious I'm going to fix everything I can?"

"Theta, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard," Koschei replied fondly, laughing when the other boy began to pout at him.

"All right, what's your name then?"

"The Master," Koschei said, closing his eyes briefly as he savored saying the word. It was the first time he had said it out loud. Theta was always the source of his firsts.

"How is that better than mine?" Theta demanded, frowning. "At least mine is helpful."

"Mine is too. It lets everyone know I'm better then them in my very name," Koschei replied. "That way I won't have to waste time arguing with them."

"You think people will stand aside just because of your name?" Theta asked with amusement.

"No. I'm going to build a reputation under that name. I'll let that do the talking," Koschei replied, holding out his hand. Theta took it and laced their fingers together as they stared over the grass at the Citadel.

"We're going to leave here Theta," he whispered, gripping the other boy's hand tighter. "We'll see the Universe together and everyone will know us. The perfect pair, the unstoppable team."

"Traveling instead of watching from a distance," Theta added, closing his eyes as he got lost in the vision. "That would be nice."

"We're going to, I promise." He pulled him closer and Theta willingly lay close beside him, his head resting on Koschei's chest. "Just us and the Universe. One day."

"Sounds nice," Theta agreed with a sigh as Koschei began to stroke his hair fondly. They lay there on the grass while the orange sky stretched over them and the Citadel stood a distance behind them, and for a moment in time, it seemed as if they would get their wish.

~*~

Company

Doctor/Master

PG

The TARDIS shifted slightly, sensing that she was the only one awake. Her consciousness spread out, sliding along the hallways, and rearranging her rooms until she found her current occupants.

Donna was in her room, sprawled out across her bed, sleeping. The TARDIS paused, lingering there for a moment. The TARDIS was so very grateful to Donna. She stopped the Doctor when he was being too wild, too brazen, too dark. She had incredible insight and Donna had quickly become very important to the Doctor. The TARDIS was also concerned about the way Time hung around her, even more so because none of the other Time Lords onboard could see it.

The thought of other Time Lords brought the TARDIS to Jenny's room. She was curled up in a ball under her covers, a smile on her face as she dreamed of more excitement and adventure. She was so like the Doctor, and she reminded him of the Time Lord that first stole inside her as he tried to escape. The TARDIS liked Jenny, but was concerned at the same time. The Doctor wasn't able to have another child, he had shut down that side of himself after the Time War. And while Jenny saw the Doctor as her father, he saw her as another companion. If anything she was more like young Romana, all those years ago. She was glad that there were more Time Lords around the Doctor, because the silence in his mind had begun to drive him insane.

The thought of insanity brought her to the last room, where the Doctor and the Master lay sleeping on the bed. They were turned towards each other, bodies curling together in a way that they never would if they were awake. The Master's face pained, eyes darting around under his eyelids as he dreamed. The Doctor's brow was furrowed and he mumbled wordlessly, hands clenching and unclenching in his sleep. They had horrible nightmares, but never once did either of them wake up during the night. The TARDIS never let them, for what could they do? They were the source of each other's nightmare, and that could never lead to comfort.

The Master worried the TARDIS, because he always ended up hurting the Doctor. She could not keep him away, either, because that would be Wrong. She could sense it, sense it in the way the Time Vortex and the Void ran through her minds, that the Master _had_ to be here now, and some force would not let her do anything else. She felt better now that the Master had risked his life multiple times, that he wasn't being horrible, that the Doctor was happier.

It was so easy for the Doctor to ignore the past with the Master by his side as Donna and Jenny kept them civil. It was so easy to pretend nothing was wrong as they got along, as Donna accepted the Master while not allowing him to backslide, as teaching Jenny distracted him, as the Master behaved. The TARDIS was happier, because the dispair in the Doctor's mind was beginning to be pushed to the back, and while he would never forget he could at least live with it.

The TARDIS watched them as they consciously reached for each other, open in a way that they could never be normally. They were meant for each other at the basic level. The TARDIS knew it, the Universe knew it, even Time itself seemed to anchor itself around that fact. The Doctor was becoming a God, and he needed the Master to be a God alongside him so they could check each other's power. Either of them with unlimited power was Wrong. Neither of them was sane enough to handle it.

The TARIDS withdrew back to her console, pleased that things were going well. Maybe, if she was lucky, it would stay like this for another 900 years.

~*~

Broken

Master/Doctor

Dub-con, abuse

NC-17 for Dark themes

He's watching me again, I can feel it. That's all he does now. He's trying to break me, to become like him. He's so insane now he can't even see it. What he's doing… he knows. He has to know that this is extreme even for him.

"Hello," he says, his voice echoing through the room. It's dark and it's pulsing and I know it's supposed to be comforting but it's not. The TARDIS is trying to help me any way she can because she knows what he's like. He didn't use to be like this. Sometimes I wish I knew what happened so I could stop it. It would be worth the paradox.

"Not talking," he murmurs when I don't reply. I never reply. There's nothing to say, not anymore.

"Say something," he lunges forwards and grabs my shoulders, his fingers digging into my skin. "Anything"

He's getting desperate now. He'll get angry next, and Rassilion knows he can rage. It's terrible to watch, even worse to be the focus of it.

He's been like this ever since he captured me. I hadn't known then, I thought it was another one of our games. But it quickly became obvious he'd broken. At some point everything caught up to him. At some point he broke.

His tongue presses against mine, demanding entrance, and I'm suddenly too tired to fight. I return the kiss and I feel the victory he feels as our minds brush together.

__

Just this once

, I thought. _I can break a little more. _

"Say my name," he murmurs against my lips. "Say it."

"Doctor," I reply softly. He groans into my mouth again and we cling to each other before we fall into the darkness.


End file.
